Don't disturb me, I won't be a concubine

The shopkeeper sighed as he spoke.

Cui Qiyan's eyes flickered when he heard this, "Is the abducted general you mentioned Lu Hao, the Marquis of Zhongjing?"

Marquis Zhongjing was stationed in Xizhou, but he was a veteran who had spent half his life in military service. How could he fall into the hands of the enemy?

"It's Lord Lu. Originally, the people in the city were not so panicked because Lord Lu was in charge of Xizhou. But when they heard that he was captured by the Northern Di people, everyone who could leave left in the past few days."

Dong Jiafu was shocked when she heard this. Marquis Zhongjing, isn’t that Lu Siheng’s father?

Cui Qiyan’s face didn’t look good either.

Seeing that they had no questions, the shopkeeper said, "Dear guests, enjoy your meal. If you need anything, please call me."

After the shopkeeper left, Cui Qiyan told Ji Bai, "Tomorrow you will stay with Doctor Xiao Tan and protect his safety. Be careful, the situation in Xizhou is worse than we expected."

"Yes, Prince, I will definitely protect Doctor Tan." Ji Bai said seriously.

After dinner, everyone went back to their rooms.

The next morning, they went their separate ways to look for herbs.

Mao Feng sent Ji Bai and Tan Hao to Baxian Mountain, while Cui Qi Yan and Dong Jiafu went to the clinic to inquire.

After leaving the inn, Cui Qiyan and Dong Jiafu walked east as the innkeeper had instructed. On the way, they saw many families carrying their luggage to leave the city.

"Will the Northern Di people really attack the city again?" Dong Jiafu asked in a low voice.

Cui Qiyan pondered, "Lord Lu is in their hands, they must have the next move. I don't know who is commanding the Xizhou Army now, and whether they are ready to fight the enemy. The court should have received the news, I wonder who will send reinforcements."

This is a national affair, Dong Jiafu can't care about so much. She just wants to find the Snow Spirit Grass for her mother as soon as possible.

When they arrived at the first clinic, they went in to ask.

When the doctor heard that they wanted to collect snow spirit grass that was no more than a day old, he waved his hands and said, "No, no, everyone is busy escaping, who would go to collect herbs? Even if there is, I'm afraid you can't afford it. Even ordinary herbs are rising in price, let alone snow spirit grass."

"As long as someone sells it, I can afford it." Dong Jiafu brought enough silver with her just in case.

“But I really don’t have any here.”

"Can you tell us where the people who often pick this medicinal herb are?" Cui Qi Yan asked.

Seeing the doctor hesitate, Dong Jiafu realized that the clinic could make money by collecting the herbs and selling them. If he told the herbalists, they would buy them directly and he would not make a penny.

Besides, he was also afraid that they were colleagues trying to trick him.

Dong Jiafu took out ten taels of silver from her pocket and said, "Don't worry, we are from another place, and we bought the snow spirit grass just to save people."

Sure enough, the doctor accepted the money and said, "Go to West Sixteenth Street and find a man named Liuzhisun. He sells the most snow spirit grass to me."

"Thank you."

Finally, they got some results. The two went to three more clinics, and the doctor said basically the same thing as the first one.

Dong Jiafu asked them a few more names, and then she and Cui Qiyan asked along the way to find people.

By dark they had only found two people, but both of them had left the city.

"We'll come out to look for the rest tomorrow," Cui Qiyan comforted her, "This is only the first day, don't lose heart."

Dong Jiafu nodded, "I know it won't be easy to find, I'm prepared, let's go back and see if my brothers have any gains."

When the two returned to the inn, Tan Hao and the other two had not returned yet.

They waited downstairs.

It was completely dark when the three of them came back from outside.

Dong Jiafu hurried forward and asked, "Brother, are you okay? Why did you come back so late?"

"It's okay, it just took me some time to get down the mountain. Sorry to have kept you waiting for a long time." Tan Hao was in good spirits.

"Thank you for your hard work. Please sit down and have a cup of tea."

The five of them sat down, and Tan Hao took a breath and asked, "Miss Dong, Mr. Cui, how was your visit to the clinic?"

Dong Jiafu replied, "We went to four clinics but couldn't find any. However, we found out from them that there are several people who often sell them Snow Spirit Grass. We went to find two of them today, but unfortunately they were out of town. We plan to look for the remaining ones tomorrow."

Tan Hao couldn't help but sigh when he heard this, "Alas, we didn't find the Snow Spirit Grass when we went up the mountain today."

Ji Bai stood up and took the basket they brought back. "We didn't find the Snow Spirit Grass, but Doctor Tan didn't let us go for nothing. These are the herbs he asked us to pick."

Dong Jiafu stared at the full basket of herbs in amazement.

Tan Hao smiled sheepishly, "There are so many useful herbs on the Eight Immortals Mountain. We picked these along the way without wasting much time."

"It's okay, Senior Brother," Dong Jiafu smiled, "We were able to collect so many herbs, so this day is quite rewarding."

"Miss Dong, don't worry. We will continue to look for it in the mountains tomorrow. We will find it eventually after practicing for a while." Tan Hao comforted her.

"Well, there are poisonous snakes and fierce beasts on that mountain, so you have to be more careful."

Tan Hao patted the sachet on his waist and said, "Don't worry, we brought sachets to repel snakes and insects. Besides, it's cold now and the snakes are hibernating. We also brought daggers and fire starters with us, so we have ways to resist wild beasts if we encounter them."

Hearing that he was fully prepared, Dong Jiafu felt relieved.

After dawn, the five people set out from the inn again.

After searching for most of the day, Dong Jiafu and Cui Qiyan finally found the person named Liuzhisun.

After finding the man’s residence, Cui Qiyan went to knock on the door.

After a while, the door opened and a man in his forties looked at them warily, "Who are you looking for?"

"Are you Liuzhisun?" Cui Qiyan asked back.

"What do you want from me?"

"I heard you have snow spirit grass here. Do you have any within a day?"

"No, no, you guys hurry up and leave." The man was obviously impatient and was about to close the door.

Cui Qiyan put his hand against the door and said, "As long as you have the Snow Spirit Grass we want, the price will satisfy you."

The man softened a little, "It's not that I don't want to sell it to you, it's just that I really don't have what you want right now."

"Can you find a way to get it?"

"There is a way," the man seemed to be considering whether they could really afford it, "but no one dares to go out at this critical moment..."

Cui Qiyan directly took out a silver ingot and said, "As long as you go looking for it, whether you can find it or not, I will give you twenty taels of silver every day. This is my sincerity to you."

The man happily took the silver.

Only then did Dong Jiafu discover that there was an extra finger on his right little finger. No wonder he was called Six Fingers.

"I can go ask everyone if they are willing to do it. Where can I find you then?"

"Yunlai Inn."

"Okay, I got it." The man closed the door.

"It seems that he didn't go to find the Snow Spirit Grass himself." Dong Jiafu saw something.

Cui Qiyan turned around and said, "Well, he probably got it from the person who lived at the foot of Baxian Mountain that the shopkeeper mentioned."

"Then we can also go to Baxian Mountain to find someone to help us. Instead of giving him the silver, we might as well give it directly to those people. Who knows if he will give them a few copper coins."

"He knows who can gather the Snow Spirit Grass, which is faster than us finding people ourselves. But we can't just wait for him. If we can't find any clues in the city, we will go to the Eight Immortals Mountain."

Dong Jiafu felt that he had considered it carefully, and the two continued to look for someone.